Credit: Wildfire B.C.

By Doug Collins

Wildfire Upodate

Mixed news on the wildfire front

Aug 3, 2021 | 7:39 AM

KAMLOOPS — A mixed situation on the forest fire front this (August 3rd) morning.

Some alerts and orders have been issued, and some have been downgraded. Tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM, the TNRD will be downgrading the Evacuation Order to an alert for several properties in the Deadman Valley. An alert for 650 properties in the vicinity of South Green Lake has been downgraded to all clear.

Meantime, an alert has been downgraded to all clear for 199 properties in the vicinity of 70 Mile and Chasm. 101 properties along the Bonaparte Plateau have had their evacuation order partially downgraded to an alert. And at noon today, the TNRD will be downgrading the evacuation order for Spences Bridge to an alert.

On the other side of the equation, an Evacuation Order was issued by the Columbia Shuswap Regional District for the west end of Humamilt Lake northwest of the Seymour Arm of Shuswap Lake, and east of Adams Lake and Momich Lake. An alert was also expanded to include Falkland and Cedar Hill and the backcountry above Yankee Flats. And an alert was issued for 76 properties in the Grassland area of the CSRD Electoral Area L because of the White Rock Lake fire. There are the alerts issued since late yesterday afternoon. As always, check the Regional District web sites for complete details.

The rain helped a bit in cooling down one of the more vigorous fires in the Kamloops Fire Centre, but it will be short-lived. The northern areas of the White Rock Lake fire received up to 10 millimeters of rain, which will provide a reprieve for the next 24-48 hours, but other parts of the fire received minimal rainfall and gusty winds didn’t help. Heavy smoke isn’t helping air support. The fire is now estimated at 32,300 hectares.

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The Tremont Creek fire southeast of Ashcroft also continued to be a problem as of yesterday. There was vigorous behaviour during the morning, and the fire progressed through the Guichon Creek Forest Service Road and into the western edge of Tunkwa Provincial Park. It’s almost 27,000 hectares in size.

The Hunakwa Lake fire southeast of Seymour Arm in the Shuswap got a bit of rain, which will help crews fighting the blaze.

Elsewhere, the July Mountain fire southwest of Merritt showed minimal growth yesterday with help from some precipitation. And the Sparks Lake fire shows moderate fire behaviour on the north flank but lesser activity on the southern flanks.